Tang Hao's Clue

About a month later, Chen Qin was discharged from the hospital. If she hadn’t been away from home for so long, Ye Shuang and the others probably would have made her stay in bed a while longer. Still, her wounds had healed exceptionally well. In fact, she had even started handling work on her laptop from the sofa.

Life seemed to have settled down again. Perhaps.

…

Yinshan Academy, school infirmary.

“The weather’s pretty nice today.” Ye Shuang reached out and pushed open the window, gazing at the lush greenery outside as he slowly drew in a deep breath.

He glanced at his phone. The screen showed his chat history with Chen Qin. There wasn’t much text; most of their conversations consisted of video calls. They contacted each other every day, and Chen Qin would occasionally even take pictures of her wound to show him.

It had healed quite well. The incision was now merely a faint pink scar.

“I suppose I’ve integrated into this life by now?” Ye Shuang murmured, putting away his phone as he began to think.

He could now play the role of “Ye Shuang” smoothly and skillfully. After all, it was almost as though he had transmigrated into a parallel world.

“Novels really are too unrealistic.” Ye Shuang couldn’t help laughing. He thought of all those transmigration novels, where the protagonist would adapt to the host’s memories in just two or three seconds and play the role perfectly, as if they had instantly become the other person.

As for Ye Shuang himself, he merely had some problems with his memories—and the person he was playing was still himself—yet it had taken him a whole month to get used to it, and he was only somewhat better now.

“Tang Hao…” Thinking of the man responsible for all this, Ye Shuang fell silent for a moment. But after Tang Hao had carried out that deed, he had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. Even some key surveillance cameras had malfunctioned, as if someone were helping him from behind the scenes.

“Jin Sha, perhaps.”

There was currently no evidence pointing to Jin Sha, but she had never been a good person to begin with. For now, it wasn’t a bad idea to direct his suspicions toward her.

Just as Ye Shuang was lost in thought, his phone vibrated. He glanced at it and saw that Fugui had sent him a message.

Fugui: I’ve got news about Tang Hao.

Fugui: Wait for me, Little Shuangshuang~

Huh?

Ye Shuang looked somewhat surprised. Tang Hao hadn’t left a trace all this time, so it seemed he had underestimated Fugui’s influence. Leaving these matters to him was very reassuring. If possible, Ye Shuang really hoped to see Tang Hao take part in that feces-swimming competition.

His phone vibrated again. Ye Shuang initially assumed it was another message from Fugui, but it turned out to be a message from Grandpa An Shi.

Anshi Yilang: We’ve found a lead on Jin Sha. It’ll take some time.

Seeing the two messages arrive one after the other, even Ye Shuang blinked in surprise. “Looks like today’s my lucky day?”

These were indeed rare pieces of good news lately.

Everything was developing in a positive direction. After all, both men had found leads, and all that remained was a matter of time.

During the lunch break, after Ye Shuang had finished seeing the last student, he tidied up a little and prepared to head to the cafeteria for lunch. The two fishes hadn’t been around lately, as if they had found some new amusement. It wasn’t particularly strange to Ye Shuang, though.

Considering how much they valued novelty, the fact that they had managed to stay in the school infirmary for such a long time was already quite surprising. Back when they had worked part-time jobs, they had once changed jobs as quickly as every half a day.

They were the type to do whatever popped into their heads without a second thought, completely free of any burden.

Still, settling down was fundamentally incompatible with the two fishes’ personalities.

After arriving at the cafeteria, Ye Shuang first went to join Bai Yuyou and the others.

Lately, Ye Shuang had either been at the company or at school. After all, with Chen Qin injured, he naturally had to shoulder quite a bit of responsibility.

“Big Brother, over here!” At the cafeteria entrance, Keke was the first to notice Ye Shuang. When she saw him approaching from a distance, she raised a hand and waved.

Ye Shuang took a look and found that quite a few people were there today.

Yuyou, Keke, Peach, and Ducky.

All four of them were present. Little Yu and the others were, as usual, nowhere near Bai Yuyou, though they might randomly spawn in the cafeteria from time to time.

“Have you been waiting long?” Ye Shuang asked with a smile.

“We only just got here,” Bai Yuyou said. Her hair was slightly damp, carrying the pleasant scent of shampoo.

Ye Shuang had initially wanted to reach out and pat her head, but in the end, he lowered his hand and instead looked toward the entrance. “Let’s go.”

“Mm.”

After getting their food and sitting down, Ye Shuang noticed that, aside from Yuyou’s usual huge bowl of rice, Keke had barely taken any food at all today.

“Keke, what’s wrong? You’re not hungry today?” he asked.

“I’m trying to lose weight, so I have to eat less,” Keke replied.

Ye Shuang looked at the food on her tray:

Boiled broccoli, carrots, boiled chicken, and a tiny serving of rice.

“This kind of diet will certainly make you lose weight, but can you stick with it?” Ye Shuang asked. The fundamental principle of losing weight was to create a calorie deficit, while the reason exercise helped with weight loss was also that it increased the difference between calories consumed and calories burned.

But seeing Keke eat so little after exercising during PE class, Ye Shuang was worried that she would eventually lose control and binge-eat.

“I can stick with it!” Keke said, clenching her little fist.

“Try intermittent fasting.”

“Fasting?”

“Mm. Eat fewer snacks, drink more water, have a full lunch, and eat less at dinner. That should make it easier to keep going,” Ye Shuang explained. It was also a more sustainable approach.

If Keke kept eating so little despite exercising in PE class, she would eventually break down.

“Oh?” Since Ye Shuang was currently working as the school doctor, Keke treated his advice as though she had just received an imperial decree. “Oh, oh! Then I can eat more?”

“As long as you cut down on sugar and oil, it’s fine to eat a little more,” Ye Shuang reminded her.

“Then I’m going to get more chicken legs and rice!” Keke declared, carrying her tray off with a happy little trot to get more food.

Seeing how excited she was, Ye Shuang could only shake his head helplessly.

“Ye Shuang, there’s an activity at school the day after tomorrow.” Bai Yuyou suddenly spoke up.

“What kind of activity?”

“Look at this.” Bai Yuyou handed him her phone.

Ye Shuang glanced at it and saw a promotional poster.

[Yinshan Academy’s Hide-and-Seek Competition]

[Each class will send three students to participate. The hiding spots may be anywhere on campus. The entire student body will have one hour to search. The students who remain hidden until the end will split a grand prize of one hundred thousand yuan.]

“This school really does have all kinds of bizarre activities,” Ye Shuang remarked.